


Butterfly

by panther



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-13
Updated: 2012-10-13
Packaged: 2017-11-16 06:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/536401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panther/pseuds/panther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A butterfly flies into their cell and Talia doesn't understand why something that is so pretty would come near them. Doesn't it realise what they are?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Butterfly

**Author's Note:**

> My first batman fic, using the prompt 'butterfly'

Talia is three when she comes into Bane’s care, four when she tells him her name and five when the butterfly flutters down into their cell. It is bright pink, and makes Bane smile when it drifts across the soft breeze and perches on the edge of their shared cot. Talia blinks at it, unsure, before looking up at Bane and pointing at it, demanding to know what it is.

“It is a butterfly,” he explains softly. “It grows from an ugly little thing, that looks like the slugs you sometimes see, and becomes a beautiful insect like that. They come in all sorts of colours.”

“Why it is here?”

“I don’t know, pet. Maybe you should ask it.”

“Don’t be silly,” Talia says dully, “You know that only people can talk, Bane.”

He laughs, heartily and low in his belly, before patting the little girl on her shaved head, “Of course, little one. I’m sorry. Maybe it is looking for a new home.”

“But it is pretty,” Talia murmurs, her face screwing up in confusion. It makes Bane’s heart clench because beauty should not be a foreign concept to a child, or something that they cannot understand or relate to. The butterfly flutters its wings slowly, seems to gaze around their small cell, and then it takes off again, weaving its way through the bars of various prisoner’s until it has disappeared from Talia’s sight. “Pretty things don’t live here in the dark.”

“Of course they do! You do, and you’re the most beautiful girl in the world,” Bane declares, clambering to his feet and lifting Talia up to swing her around by her hands. She giggles and then stifles them, trying not to draw too much attention. She knows that Bane would always defend her, against anything, but she doesn’t like to see him hurt and certainly not because of her. 

The man in the next cell grunts, shouts obscenities that has Bane almost growling because such innocent ears should never be tainted with such things, such eyes never darken in fear the way Talia’s do just at the sound of another voice. The smile fades and the little girl trots back to their cot, curling up against the wall and gesturing for Bane to join her. It will be hours before more food appears and there is nothing better for them to do than lie together and tell stories. Talia has the stories of an overactive imagination and Bane memories of the life he used to lead. Talia still doesn’t believe Bane when he properly explains the life cycle of butterflies. Why would anything that escaped such horrid beginnings return to a hole in the ground? It doesn’t make any sense, but Bane takes comfort in the fact that whether she accepts it or not Talia has seen some of the beauty that the world has to offer. It proves that there _is_ a world worth aspiring for if you can rise. 

He realises that it has all been for nothing when Talia is ripping up the bread they are sharing between them and carefully dividing up the meat. She glances over at where the butterfly had been and looks Bane straight in the eye, “I just don’t get why the caterpillar didn’t understand that it belonged in the dirt. Some things just do. Like us, we live in the darkness and we’re ok aren’t we Bane?”

“We’re fine, Talia. That doesn’t mean that we can’t wish for more though. It is good to want things in life. You will see that, because you are going to get out of here. I don’t know when and I don’t know how but one day you will rise. I can see it in your eyes little one,” Bane states calmly, taking his dinner and devouring it like a starving dog as Talia munches on hers slowly and contemplates. He can see that she still doesn’t understand, still thinks so little of herself, but she is young and he hopes that there is time to change her, make her grow and become ambitious. He would give her the world if he could but he can’t, so he must make her want it instead.


End file.
